A machine operating at a work site may need the ability to communicate with remote entities, such as, for example, other machines, remote devices, and remote stations. This may be due to various reasons. One reason may be that a number of machines may operate in tandem at a work site. The machines may operate in such a manner because a task performed by one machine may be related to the task performed by another. Therefore, an operator of one machine at a work site may need to be aware of the operations of another machine. For example, a machine that operates as a loader at a work site may only begin its operation of loading the excavated material at a work site after another machine that operates as an excavator has completed its task of excavating the material from the work site. It would be advantageous for the loader and the excavator to be in communication with each other in order to ensure the efficacy of operations at a work site. In addition, machines operating at different work sites or even the same work site may need to communicate other information to each other such as position information, loading information, etc.
It may also be advantageous for machines operating at work sites to exchange information with remote stations, such as, for example, base stations, monitoring stations, etc. This information may include, for example, operating instructions, software upgrades for machine components, status of machine components, etc. In some instances, the remote station may be located at the work site of a machine. Alternatively, the remote station may be located away from the work site of the machine. Thus, there exists a need for communication between machines at the same or different work sites and also between machines and remote stations.
Due to the number of machines operating at work sites and also due to the large distances that may exist between machines and remote stations, it may not be feasible to connect each machine to the other and/or to the remote stations (i.e., in a mesh formation) by using a separate physical connection between each machine and a remote station. Instead, it may be desirable to connect the machines and remote stations to each other using a communication network. In some instances, the users and manufacturers of machines operating at a work site may not own a communication network of their own. In such instances, there may be a need to leverage a third-party communication network, i.e., a communication network owned and operated by an entity other than the user and manufacturer of the machines and remote stations.
To remedy the problem of providing communications between a machine and remote entities, many solutions have been proposed that involve the use of communication networks. One related system and method is described in U.S. Patent Application No. 2004/0207514 by Lesesky et al. (“the '514 application”) that published on Oct. 21, 2004. The '514 application discloses a system for data communications with a vehicle. Specifically, the '514 application discloses a vehicle data communications protocol converter that may be used to convert a first data communications protocol associated with the data generated from components in the vehicle to a second data communications protocol associated with an infrared communications protocol, a radio frequency (“RF”) data communications protocol, an Internet data network protocol, and other such protocols. The system also includes a transceiver that connects to the vehicle data communications protocol converter to transmit the data communications protocol from the vehicle to a remote data communications terminal and receive the data communications protocol from the remote data communications terminal.
While the system of the '514 publication may provide for communication between a vehicle and a remote terminal using a communication network, it has several shortcomings. For example, the system of the '514 publication does not allow for adding transmission information that may help prioritize the transmission of time-sensitive information over information sent with lower priority. The system of the '514 publication also does not provide for the use of transmission information to exchange information over the communication network as per quality of service criteria. For example, the nature of some information may require the delivery of information by reliable means using delivery mechanisms that may include, for example, acknowledgements, for messages delivered. The system of the '514 publication does not ensure the reliable delivery of such information.
Additionally, the system of the '514 publication does not provide for the encryption of information exchanged between a machine and remote entities. The system of the '514 publication also does not include a firewall for components on board the machine from certain data, such as, corrupt data, unwanted data, viruses, etc., that may traverse through the communication network.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems of the prior art vehicle data communication system.